Payroll glitch finally caught after 5 years, $469,000

In 2002, Anthony Armatys accepted a job with telecommunications company Avaya, Inc., but then backed out before he actually started working. Apparently nobody told the payroll department, though, because his salary was electronically deposited in his bank account like clockwork for the next five years. After collecting and spending several hundred thousand dollars he never worked for (including $1,900 in retirement benefits), Armatys was finally snagged by the long arm of the law last week. ...read more

Giant rats, musical seizures

In their continuing quest to make the world a weirder place, scientists announced the discovery of an extinct species of rodent that weighed in at more than 1,500 pounds. Proving that they aim to prevent weirdness when it might interfere with someone's life, though, they successfully cured a woman who was sent into seizures by the reggae stylings of Sean Paul. ...read more

UFOs terrify Texas town

Aliens from another world travelled millions of light years to visit our planet and, in keeping with their mysterious but remarkably consistent M.O., hovered over a small, rural community, freaking out the locals but otherwise doing nothing in particular. "People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid it's the end of times," said one person who saw something he couldn't explain. "It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts." ...read more

Gang leader taunts cops to come and get him on YouTube; cops come and get him

Bad thing to do if you're a criminal with the cops hot on your trail: Appear on YouTube surrounded by weaponry saying "Here I am, baby!" This story has a predictable end for our criminal mastermind, but hopefully it will serve as a cautionary tale to others. ...read more

Geek comic of the week: Times Like This

Time travel has been mined for dramatic tension and philosophical musing, but Times Like This may be the first attempt to milk it for laughs. The time-traveling heroine may be making a mint off of early Superman comics or taunting Devo with their future habits -- but it's almost always pretty funny. ...read more

10 incredible old computer ads

Take a trip back to a simpler time in the days of computer marketing, when $12,000 was a shockingly low price for 80 MB of storage, when a computer could be called "portable" if it could fit into a briefcase, and Bill Gates was considered a good choice for an ad model. read more

10 reasons we're doomed: CES edition

One tech blogger has finally had it after years of attending the annual Las Vegas consumer electronics circus. He details everything wrong with the tawdry spectacle that is CES, from the booth babes to the 150-inch TVs to the cheap knockoffs to the people waiting in line for autographs from the booth babes. continue reading '10 reasons we're doomed: CES edition'

Poll: What's your take on UFOs?

- Swamp gas, weather balloons, and gullibility
- Most are crackpot sightings, but I keep an open mind on a few
- They're experimental (but human) aircraft
- Alien saucers from beyond the moon! The truth is out there!

Vote now!


LAST WEEK'S RESULTS

What sci-fi advance are you most looking forward to?

Robot servants - 13.1%
Sentient computers - 8.2%
Personal jet packs - 6.6%
Flying cars - 14.8%
Space colonies - 13.1%
Transporter beams - 32.8%
Undersea cities - 1.6%
Soylent Green - 9.8%

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